Watch Live: Pete Hegseth, Dan Caine hold news conference as Iran airstrikes continue

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said early Monday the U.S. military operation in Iran is  “laser-focused” as the U.S. and Israeli military operation against Iran continued into a third day.  

“Destroy Iranian missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure and they will never have nuclear weapons,” said Hesgeth, who was joined by Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. 

The Pentagon announced Monday that a fourth American service member has been killed in the mission. The announcement followed the deaths of three U.S. service members in Kuwait over the weekend. 

Hegseth acknowledged the deaths on Monday, and insisted the military operation in Iran would not be “endless.”

“This is not Iraq,” Hegseth said. “This is not endless. I was there for both — our generation knows better, and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb and he’s right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission: Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes.” 

On Monday, Kuwait shot down three U.S. F-15s in what CENTCOM called a “friendly fire incident,” but all crewmembers were safe. Smoke rose, meanwhile, from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait after an apparent Iranian missile strike.

At least 11 people have been killed in Israel. The Iranian Red Crescent says 555 people have been killed in Iran.

President Trump said Sunday that the joint military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved,” and that could be “four weeks or less,” but that more American casualties are possible.

The U.S. and Israel launched a massive military operation against Iran over the weekend, which included striking Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound in Tehran and killing him. 

Hegseth on Monday accused Iran of having started the war, saying Iran’s “stubborn and self-evident nuclear pursuit” as well as “targeting global shipping lines.” 

“Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb,” Hegseth said.